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ATTENTION WYANDOTTE CITIZENS!

Please contact Dana at the tribal center and update your mailing address today. If you are receiving the tribal newsletter your records are up to date. Information has been mailed out regarding a new supplemental healthcare benefit! Call your family members and have them update their mailing addresses too.

Chief Bearskin's ultimate vision was to provide healthcare to all Tribal Citizens. It has taken several years and a lot of work by many people, now through the final efforts of Chief Friend we are seeing Chief Bearskin’s dream become a reality for ALL Tribal Citizens nationwide!

What History Says

“Of all the savage allies of Great Britain in the West, the Wyandots were the most powerful. This arose not so much from the number of their warriors, as from their superior intelligence. Their long association with the French at Detroit, and, after that post fell into the possession of Great Britain, with its later occupants, had advanced them in many respects over the surrounding nations.”
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Butterfield, C. W. An Historical Account of the Expedition Against Sandusky Under Col. William Crawford In 1782. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co, 1873. print. (164-5)

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Are the Wyandotte Huron?

Many people ask the question, “Are the Wyandotte Huron?” History states that we are predominately of the Tionontati tribe and the Tionontati were never admitted into the Huron (Wendat) Confederacy; however, we do have connections to the Huron through the Attignawantan who were the founding tribe of the Huron. The Wyandotte Nation consists of remnants of the Tionontati, Attignawantan and Wenrohronon (Wenro), all unique independent tribes, who united in 1649-50 after being defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy. A simple answer to a very complicated question is no, the Wyandotte Nation was not part of the Huron Confederacy proper as the Wyandotte truly didn’t exist until after the fall of the Huron Confederacy.

A Murderer

62 WYANDOTT MISSION.

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If one Indian steals from another, the loser may take his property wherever he can find it; and if he can get hold of the property of the thief, he may take as much as will remunerate him for his loss and trouble. Theft, however, is but little known amongst them, except that committed by the profligate and abandoned to dissipation. I was told by Honnes, that after the war with the Six Nations, the Wyandott nation was ruined. Before that time, it was seldom known for one Indian to steal from another; but after that war, they used to commit murder at their hunting camps, and plunder the skins and furs whenever they thought they would not be detected; and murder and robbery were carried on to an alarming ex tent. The nation, in council, decreed to put to death every such murderer. The trial and execution were as follows: When any person was found murdered, it was the duty of those finding him to bring him to the nearest town or village. Then runners were sent to summon the whole nation; and if any refused to come, they were suspected and brought by force. The dead body was

63 WYANDOTT MISSION.

placed in the middle of the council, and all the assembly was seated round it. Then there were examiners appointed to call on each person to give an account of himself, and to communicate any suspicions or circumstances, that might bring the murderer to light. All who could not clearly show that no suspicion lay against them, were placed in the middle. Then a second examination took place of the suspicious ones, and the offender exhorted to confess his crime; for if an innocent person should suffer in his place, his guilt would be double. By this method they found out the offender. When the sentence of guilt was passed, the body of the murdered person was taken and placed on a smooth piece of bark, supported by a scaffold of forks and poles, two or three feet from the ground, and so fixed that all the matter from the putrefying carcass should drop from a certain place. The murderer was then tied, and so firmly pinioned to the ground by tugs and stakes, as not to be able to move in the least. A gag was then put into his mouth, so as to keep it open, which was so placed as to receive the drops from the putrefying body. In this position he lay, without one moment’s respite, until death came to his relief; and this, the chief said, would be from ten to fifteen days. A few were put to death in this way, which so effectually broke up the practice of killing and robbing, that it is hardly ever known for an Indian to touch the property of another, even in the woods, unless hunger compels him to take some meat to subsist upon.

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Finley, Rev. James Bradley. History of the Wyandott Mission, At Upper Sandusky, Ohio, Under the Direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Cincinnati: E. P. Thompson, 1840. Print.